with homage more sincere and universal. "He was every where," says Thiers, "greeted with every demonstration of respect by immense multitudes. The prodigious man, who had rescued those provinces from civil war, and had given them back quiet, safety, prosperity, and the exercise of their religion, was in their eyes more than a man. He was almost a God." the extreme Upper Mississippi. Steamboats as- | in Europe. No monarch was ever surrounded cend from New Orleans to Fort Snelling, and small steamers are now navigating the Mississippi above the Falls of St. Anthony, a distance of about one hundred and eighty miles. The city of St. Anthony has good hotels, and will hereafter be a place of great resort for summer tourists. Now that railways are about to connect the Atlantic with the Mississippi for land travel, and fine steamers are daily traversing the whole length of the great lakes, the tide of fashionable Summer travel which has been heretofore at flood at Niagara, will flow on to the Falls of St. Anthony; and those who have been accus-reach the public mind. Let the intelligent reader tomed to angle in Lake George or the clear lakes and streams of Northern New England, will cast their lines ere long in the green depths of the remote Itaska. There is a country beyond the Great Falls, of surpassing beauty, fertility and grandeur, not yet opened to the light of civilization. It is still the abode of the dusky children of the forest; but the knell of their empire has sounded. It is heard in the ring of every woodman's ax, as he fells the mighty pines along the rivers; it is heard in the crack of every white man's rifle, who is seeking game for the markets upon the borders of civilization. Soon the Red Man's hunting ground must be far beyond the Red River, for the cornfields of the White Man must occupy all the land eastward of it. A tide of emigration is just beginning to flow in that direction, bearing upon its bosom the elements of a wealthy and powerful commonwealth, the mother of two or three future States. Already its foundation is laid deep and strong in sound territorial organization and social regulations. There a new Canaan is opened to the toiling slaves of Europe, whose oppressors are driving them into an exodus, such as the world never saw. They are coming here by hundreds of thousands, and yet there is Testimony like this falls strangely upon the ears of those who are familiar with only such representations as conquering England and the Bourbons of France have hitherto allowed to reflect for one moment upon the fact, that as soon as Napoleon had been crushed by his allied foes it became a matter of the utmost importance to the reigning family in France, to England, and to every despotic government of Europe, to misrepresent the character of their illustrious foe. The stability of their thrones depended upon convincing the people that Napoleon was an execrable tyrant. Consequently the wealth and the almost boundless patronage of all the monarchies of Europe were concentrated in securing the vituperation of the one lone exile of St. Helena. The trumpet peals of these assaults still reverberate through Europe, and now and then are faintly echoed even on our own shores. Never before was mortal man exposed to such an ordeal. Yet Napoleon, vanquished at Waterloo, became the victor at St. Helena. Alone upon his barren rock, prohibited from uttering one word in selfdefense, he silently breasted the clamor which filled the world, and triumphed over it all. The people, in all lands, adore the name of their great friend, Napoleon. Who now will venture to affirm that the Duke of Wellington, in alliance with all the despots of Europe, was struggling for popular rights; and that Napoleon Bonaparte, sustained by the sympathies of the people, was contending for aristocratic privilege? England had the boldness to affirm that she was fighting for the liberties of Europe. She conquered. She attained the end for which she fought. And where now are those boasted liberties? Did the perfidious Ferdinand confer them upon Spain? Are they to be found beneath the iron rule of the Bourbons of Naples? Did that Hungarian wail, which recently tingled upon the ears of the world, sound like the shout of an enfranchised people? Are those dirges, blending with the gales which sweep the snows of Siberia, the peans of popular freedom? The liberties of Europe! They fell, by the onslaught of all the banded despots of Christendom, in the carnage of Waterloo. They were entombed beneath the weeping willow of St. Helena. England now dreads the despotism ROM Bayonne Napoleon returned to Paris. of Russia as much as she once feared the demoHe visited by the way many of the southern cracy of France. When Napoleon fell, popular departments of France. In every place he was rights fell with him, and feudal aristocracy rereceived with transports of enthusiasm. France gained its sway. 'Europe," said Napoleon, was in the highest state of prosperity. This "must soon become Republican or Cossack." prosperity was justly and universally attributed The gloom of Russian despotism, like the black to the genius of Napoleon. With his own sub-pall of midnight, is now settling down over all jects, he was by far the most popular sovereign the Continent. room. Our welcome to the oppressed is yet as free and generous as the couplet, "Come along, come along, don't feel alarm; Uncle Sam is rich enough to give you all a farm. The vestibule of Minnesota has only been entered. The great interior is yet unoccupied. "There are its interlinking lakes, its forests wild and wide, And streams-the sinews of its strength-that feed it as they glide; Its rich primeval pasture grounds, fenc'd by the stoop ing sky, And mines of treasure, yet undelved, that 'neath its surface lie. FROM NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. THE EMPERORS AT ERFURTH. It is not always easy to ascertain the facts in reference to the private morals of one who occupies a conspicuous position in the eyes of the world. There was a time when Napoleon was accused of every crime of which a mortal can be guilty. All the members of the Bonaparte family were likewise represented as utterly infamous. Even his bitterest enemies now admit that in this respect he has been grievously wronged. Says the Encyclopædia Britannica, "At one time any slanderous or infamous story, derogatory to Napoleon, readily gained credit in this country [England]. Indeed the more slanderous or the more infamous the tale, the greater became the certainty that it would be believed. The credulity of national hatred was not shocked by ordinary improbabilities. For instance, it was commonly said, and we may add universally believed, that Josephine was a woman of infamous character, or worse. The common belief is, however, altogether unsupported by evidence. Is it probable that he who so fully recognized the necessity of discountenancing immorality, and who afterward drove from his presence and his service all women of questionable reputation, would have done so, had he been conscious that he had married a person of doubtful or of indifferent character?" Says Ingersoll: "In the autumn of 1802 I saw Bonaparte. Monstrous ambition and tremendous downfall have given color to the vast detraction to which Napoleon was subjected. It will be some time before the truth can be gradually established. But it has been in continual progress of emancipation since his fall. Posterity will recognize him not only as a great, but likewise in many respects a good man, excelling in private and domestic virtues. Napoleon's morals were not only exemplary, but singular, compared with contemporary monarchs-Napoleon, apart from rabid ambition, was a model of domestic, particularly matrimonial virtues." Louis Bonaparte, a man of unsullied purity of character, thus speaks of his brother Napoleon: "He was temperate, and had only noble passions. That which is incontestable is, that, the husband of a first wife, much older than himself, he lived matrimonially with her in the most perfect harmony, even to the last day of their union, without giving her any subject of complaint. It is undeniable that no one can reproach him with keeping any titled mistress, nor with any scandal, and when married a second time, at the age of forty-two years, he treated his second spouse with courtesy, amiability, and with a delicacy of attentions which were never intermitted." Among the innumerable gross charges which were brought against Napoleon, he was accused of improper intimacy with Hortense, the daughter of Josephine. Bourrienne was the private secretary of Napoleon. He was charged with peculation, and was dismissed from office. Upon the restoration of the Bourbons he was taken into their service, and while drinking of their cup he wrote a bitter work against his former master. And yet he says, "This calumny must be classed a nong those which malice delights to take with the character of men who become celebrated. 'Let not this reproach be made a charge against him by the impartial historian. His principles were rigid in an extreme degree. Any fault, of the nature charged, neither entered his mind, nor was it in accordance with his morals or his taste." The Duchess of Abrantes says of Hortense : "In the year 1800, she was a charming young girl. She afterward became one of the most amiable princesses of Europe. I have seen many, both in their own courts and in Paris, but I never knew one who had any pretensions to equal talents. The First Consul looked upon her as his child. It was only in that country so fertile in the inventions of scandal, that so foolish an accusation could have been imagined, as that any feeling less pure than paternal affection actuated his conduct toward her. The vile calumny met with the contempt it merited. It is now only remembered to be confuted." "The fact is," she says, "that Bonaparte had but one real passion. In that all his other feelings were absorbed." 'Josephine," she says, was insufferably vain of the fidelity of her husband." 66 66 His habits in this respect were so peculiar in those times of universal corruption, that while one party accused him of the most revolting debauchery, another party affirmed that he was a monster, whom God had deprived of the ordinary energies and passions of a man. In confirmation of this view, they referred to the fact that he was childless. In reference to this charge, Josephine wrote thus to Hortense: "They who, in the affection which my husband manifests for you, have pretended to discover other sentiments than those of a parent and a friend, know not his soul. His mind is too elevated above that of the vulgar to be ever accessible to unworthy passions." The Duchess d'Aiguillon, a former friend and benefactress of Josephine, during the tumult of those times had not preserved a perfectly spotless character. She wished to be received at court. Josephine, grateful for past kindness, made application in her behalf. Napoleon peremptorily refused. Josephine thus wrote to the duchess: "I am deeply afflicted. My former friends, supposing that I can obtain the fulfillment of all my wishes, must think that I have forgotten the past. The Emperor, indignant at the total disregard of morality, and alarmed at the progress it might still make, is resolved that the example of a life of regularity and of religion shall be presented in the palace where he reigns.' At St. Helena Napoleon was one day reading the Secret History of the Cabinet of Bonaparte, by Goldsmith. The character of the Emperor was painted in the darkest hues of infamy. As Napoleon read page after page, he sometimes shrugged his shoulders, and at times even laughed outright. At last he mildly said, without betraying the least sign of anger, "They are in the wrong to attack me on the score of morals. All the world knows that I have singularly improved them. They can not be ignorant that I was not at all inclined by nature to debauchery. Moreover, believe that Napoleon intended to overthrow all the multiplicity of my affairs would never have the ancient reigning families of Europe. Pointallowed me time to indulge in it." When he ing to the dethronement of the Bourbons of came to the pages where his mother was described Spain, she exclaimed, "This is the fate which as guilty of most infamous conduct, he repeated awaits all the old royalties of the Continent." several times, in tones of blended grief and indig. We will die," exclaimed the Archduke Charles, nation, "Ah, Madame! Poor Madame! with" if it must be so, with arms in our hands. But her lofty character! if she were to read this! Great God!" These facts sufficiently prove that Napoleon is not to be catalogued with the dissolute and licentious kings who have so often disgraced the thrones of Europe. History can not record his name with such profligates as Henry VIII., Charles II., and George IV. From the companionship of such men he would have recoiled with disgust. the crown of Austria shall not be disposed of as easily as that of Spain has been." Military preparations immediately resounded throughout the whole kingdom. Seven hundred thousand men were armed and exercised every day. Fourteen thousand artillery horses were purchased, and a million of muskets. Twenty thousand workmen were employed upon the fortifications of Hungary, that the Austrians, in case of defeat, might retire to those distant retreats, for a prolonged and a desperate resistPowerful divisions of the army began to defile toward the frontiers of France. National enthusiasm was aroused to the highest pitch. The French, wherever they were found, at Vienna, at Trieste, at the watering-places of Germany, were wantonly insulted. He had no As Napoleon was visiting the southern departments of his empire an incident occurred, pecu-ance. liarly illustrative of his watchfulness and of his discrimination. He had ordered some very difficult and important works to be executed on a bridge of the canal of Languedoc. The engineer had admirably accomplished the arduous achievement. Napoleon wished to inspect the Napoleon dreaded another war. works, and to reward the author of them on the thing to gain by it. It thwarted his magnificent theatre of his glory. He sent orders to the pre-plans for enriching and embellishing his majestic fect of the department and the chief engineer to empire. Peace was the most intense desire of repair to the spot. Napoleon, ever punctual, his heart. Under these circumstances he had arrived before the prefect, and found only the an interview with M. Metternich, the Austrian chief engineer at the place. He immediately en- minister. Napoleon was particularly gracious tered into conversation with him, and asked many and mild, but very decided. Many of the minisquestions upon every point of difficulty which ters of other courts were present. In a low must have been encountered in the execution of and gentle tone of voice, but sufficiently loud to an enterprise so arduous. The engineer seemed be overheard by many who were present, he embarrassed, and replied with hesitation and con- said:* fusion. Soon the prefect appeared. Napoleon promptly said to him, "I am not correctly informed. The bridge was not made by that man. Such a work is far beyond his capacity." The prefect then confessed that the chief engineer was neither the originator of the plan nor the author of the works, but that they both belonged to a modest, subordinate man, unknown to fame. The Emperor immediately sent for this subengineer, and questioned him closely upon every point upon which he was desirous of receiving information. He was perfectly satisfied with the answers. "I am quite pleased," said he, "at having come in person to inspect these splendid works; otherwise I should never have known that you were the author of them, and you would have been deprived of the reward to which you are so justly entitled." He appointed the young man, whose genius he had thus discovered, chief engineer, and took him to Paris. In the month of August, 1808, Napoleon returned to the metropolis. Austria, ever hostile at heart, and intensely humiliated by her defeats, had long been watching for an opportunity to fall again upon the dreaded foe of aristocratic privilege, the renowned champion of popular rights. Encouraged by the hostile attitude of Spain, and believing that Napoleon would be compelled to direct his main energies to that point, she began to assume a menacing attitude. She affected to "You wish, M. Metternich, either to make war on us, or to frighten us." "We wish, Sire," M. Metternich replied, "to do neither the one nor the other." "Why, then," replied Napoleon, "your armaments? They agitate yourselves and Europe They put peace in jeopardy, and ruin your fi nances. "These arrangements are only defensive," said M. Metternich. * "Meanwhile, the Austrian embassador at Paris had the difficult task to discharge, of maintaining apparently amicable relations with the French government, at the time when his cabinet were openly preparing the means of decided hostility. But the Baron Metternich, who then filled that exalted situation at the court of Napoleon, was a man whose abilities were equal to the task. A statesman, in the widest acceptation of the word; gifted with a sagacious intellect, a clear perception, a sound judgment; profoundly versed in the secrets of diplomacy, and the characters of the leading political men with whom he was brought in contact in the different European cabi nets; persevering in his policy, far-seeing in his views, unrivaled in his discrimination, and at the same time skillful in concealing these varied qualities; a perfect master of dissimulation in public affairs, and yet honorable and candid in private life; capable of acquiring in formation from others, at the very moment when he was eluding all similar investigation from them; unbounded in application, richly endowed with knowledge, he also enjoyed the rare faculty of vailing those great acquirements under the cover of polished manners, and causing his superiority to be forgotten in the charms of a varied and intellectual conversation."-Alison Napoleon mildly but firmly replied: "Were your armaments only defensive, they would not be so hurried. When new organizations are to be created, one takes time, does nothing abruptly. Things are done best that are done slowly. One does not, under such circumstances, erect magazines, order assemblages of troops, and buy horses, particularly artillery horses. Your army amounts to nearly four hundred thousand men. Your militia will nearly equal the same number. Were I to imitate you, I should add four hundred thousand men to my effective force. That would be an armament out of all reason. I will not follow your example. It would soon be necessary to arm women and children, and we should relapse into a state of barbarism. Wherefore all these military preparations? Have I demanded any thing of you? Have I advanced claims to any of your provinces? The treaty of Pressburg has settled all claims between the two empires. Your master's word ought to have settled every thing between the two sovereigns. I demand nothing of you. I want nothing of you except mutual quiet and security. Is there any difficulty, any one difficulty, between us? Let it be known, that we may settle it on the spot." M. Metternich replied: "The Austrian government, Sire, has no thought of attacking France. It has not ordered any movement of troops." VOL. VII-No. 38.-N 66 'You are mistaken," Napoleon with quiet decision rejoined. 'Assemblages of troops have taken place in Gallicia and Bohemia, in front of the quarters of the French army. The fact is incontestable. The immediate result must be the assemblage of equal forces on the French side. I must, consequently, instead of demolishing the fortresses of Silesia, repair, arm, and provision them, and put every thing again on a war-footing. You are well aware that I shall not be taken by surprise. I shall be always prepared. You rely, perhaps, upon aid from the Emperor of Russia. You deceive yourself. I am certain of his adhesion, of the disapprobation he has manifested respecting your armaments, and of the course he will adopt on the occasion. Do not imagine, then, that the opportunity is a favorable one for attacking France. It would be a grievous mistake on your part. You do not desire war. I believe it of you, M. Metternich, of your Emperor, and of the enlightened men of your country. But the German nobility, dissatisfied with the changes which have occurred, fill Germany with their rancor. You allow yourselves to be influenced. You communicate your emotions to the masses in urging them to arm. Byand-by you will be brought to that point at which one longs for a crisis, as a means of escaping out of an insupportable situation. That crisis will be war. Moral and physical nature alike, when they are come to that troubled state | Vienna. The next day, effectually to sound the which precedes the storm, have need to explode, in order to purify the air and bring back serenity. This is what I fear from your present conduct. I repeat to you, I want nothing of you I demand nothing but peace. But if you make preparations, I shall make such that the superiority of my arms will not be more doubtful than in the preceding campaigns. Thus, in order to preserve peace, we shall have brought on war.' This conversation was immediately committed to paper by the Austrian minister, and sent to disposition of Austria, the French embassador was instructed to repeat to the Austrian cabiinet, that these extraordinary armaments must be stopped, or that war must openly be declared. Napoleon also called upon Austria for the recognition of Joseph as King of Spain. At the same time Napoleon addressed a circular to the princes of the Confederation of the Rhine, in which he called upon them, "to make ready their contingents, to prevent a war, without a pretext as without an object, by showing to Austria that they |